Les Savy Fav

Go Forth (French Kiss)

Les Savy Fav is a skilled group of musical surgeons soaring through complicated rock operations. The Brooklyn act stitches the intense, quickly changing rhythms of emo (think At the Drive In, Fugazi) into the body of driving indie-pop songs (think Now It's Overhead), then adds robotic melodies of industrial noise (think the Faint). Go Forth, the art school act's third release, still exposes plenty of raw nerves, starting with the band's sharp lyrics. Whether the topic is falling in familial love with your captors ("Adopduction") or jabbing at the capitalist structure ("Sometimes jobs turn to vacations/ but I must always earn/ Still waiting for standing ovations/ for filing my tax return"), LSF generates multiple meanings under a thick, cynical skin. They tag their delivery with fisticuffs, shifting the dynamics between shouted lines and actual singing ("One to Three"). The music is equally moody, oscillating between a hammered delivery of mathematical guitars and clipped drums to flushed out, ebullient melodies crackling with excitement. Go Forth is the brilliant intersection of art and emo, a crossroads that catches the band in a prime position to rock both worlds.

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